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Seattle Sounders brush aside Vancouver Whitecaps at BC Place

Jennifer Buchanan / Reuters

The Seattle Sounders won the 2015 Cascadia Cup on Saturday, sweeping aside the Vancouver Whitecaps 3-0 at BC Place Stadium.

Goals courtesy of Andreas Ivanschitz, Gonzalo Pineda, and Obafemi Martins proved too much for the Whitecaps to handle, as the Canadian outfit dropped a key Western Conference matchup against their Cascadia rivals.

The first half went back and forth as both sides looked to break the others' defensive resolve. It was Seattle who would break through first with an opening goal late in the first half courtesy of Ivanschitz, who was making his first MLS start.

(Courtesy: Major League Soccer)

The Austrian winger picked up the ball at the left side of the box via a smart pass by Obafemi Martins, then buried home the effort with ease, opening his MLS account and giving the Sounders a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.

Seattle doubled their lead in the second half, when Nelson Valdez picked up the ball in midfield. He connected with Clint Dempsey on a cheeky pass, and then Dempsey slipped the ball over to Gonzalo Pineda.

Pineda hit a perfect shot into the top corner to give the Sounders a 2-0 lead with 20 minutes to go in the match, as the Whitecaps began to lose control of the game.

Martins rounded off the night with a goal of his own as he and Dempsey broke on a counterattack late in the game. Dempsey beat Russell Teibert in the box, then slipped, but managed to send a pass sideways to Martins for a simple tap-in to put the visitors up three.

The Sounders were also particularly grateful on this night to goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who kept a clean sheet against one of the top teams in the Western Conference to bring three points and the Cascadia Cup back to Seattle.

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